Grant funding for sustainable travel initiatives

The grant funding aims to provide financial support to employers to encourage active and/or sustainable modes of commuting amongst their staff and/or visitors. Organisations can apply for a max. of £3000 and are expected to match fund any proposed scheme. The grants can be used for the implementation of physical measures or initiative start-up. Examples of these include:

West of England Growth Hub

The West of England Growth Hub offers access to an extensive, connected network of business knowledge and skills partners, supporting local businesses to confidently expand and grow. Visit the website to access the range of support on offer https://www.wearegrowth.co.uk/

North Somerset Enterprise Agency

can also provide advice on sources of business finance as part of the service to new and growing businesses.

West of England LEADER Programme

The new West of England LEADER programme is now open for applications for grants from rural businesses and communities across North Somerset, South Gloucestershire and Bath & North East Somerset.

Eligible businesses and communities can apply for grants for capital projects to help support their growth and sustainability. Applications for investments from £10,000 up to £100,000 can now be made.

The West of England Local Action Group will be delivering these funds as part of the Rural Development Programme for England (RDPE), with the money made available through the Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs (Defra).

The LEADER programme is primarily designed to promote business growth and stimulate job creation. The programme is focused on rural areas and its priorities are supporting micro and small rural businesses, farm diversification projects, forestry projects, tourism projects, rural services and cultural and heritage projects.

If you are a rural business or community organisation and think this capital funding might help your bring forward your plans then please visit westofenglandrdp.org.uk for full details on the eligibility criteria, application process and a map showing which areas qualify for funding.

RDPE Rural Growth Programme for the West of England

The Rural Growth Programme for the West of England LEP is now open for applications.Although a national programme, each LEP has identified particular aspects of the calls they wish to focus on and these are reflected in the individual area specifications within the topic prospectuses which can be downloaded from; https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/rdpe-growth-programme

The rural business grants will provide funds for business projects in tourism, food and drink and the land-based and farming sectors. An initial open-ended round will run from January 2017 until January 2018.Businesses are encouraged to apply, obtain and invest grants to support their start-up, expansion or growth plans. This grant programme sits alongside the existing LEADER Programme and other European Union Funds. Please check that you are in an eligible area https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/270728/West_of_England_LEP_full_class.jpg

Food and Drink Processing

Through this Food Processing call the LEP is seeking to encourage applicants who can innovate within the food and drink sector, strengthen and develop local products, and link with the Junction 21 Foodworks Programme.

Tourism

Through the Tourism Infrastructure call the LEP is seeking to develop rural tourism to maximise the economic and employment benefits. We are encouraging projects that support businesses to invest in facilities and infrastructure that develop tourism, raise quality and encourage longer stays and higher spend. The rural tourism sector offers a significant opportunity for growth in developing the all year round destination offer and improving the quality of tourism products. This can benefit the wider economy of rural areas through high spend on rural attractions and accommodation as well as an increase in tourism based enterprises and job opportunities.

Business Development

The West of England LEP has identified that access to finance (including grants) is a barrier to growth for rural SME’s. The call for Business Development funding will seek to address some of the specific issues and will allow diversification of farming businesses into non-agricultural activities, support creation of new product lines and processes and will support applicants to enter into new markets including new and/or increased export activity.